Swimming
by Aza White
Summary: Inspired by Ch. 5 of Kunihiko's Main Story. What happened at the pool, and why was Kunihiko looking at those photos?


"Come on Uncle! Let's go swimming!"

I laughed to hear Annalise so excited. She was so easily entertained with the pool, especially after that little trick I played on her. Annalise skipped ahead as we walked the path to the public pool. Her hair bounced in her ponytail as she turned around and stopped moving. "Uncle, you're so slow! Can't you go any faster?"

"Come on, I'm not that bad, am I?" I acted offended and clutched my heart.

"Your poor uncle isn't that old yet."

"Yes, you are," said Annalise, glaring playfully at me. Ouch, even she thought I was old. I scooped her up and carried her on my back.

"That's what you get for calling me an old man!"

"Put me down!" But she was shrieking with laughter, and so I carried her past the gate, stopping only to swipe the card in the entrance gate. I set her down, and before I could issue a warning, she was running full speed towards the water.

"Annalise, no!" I could only watch in horror as she slipped on the wet concrete. Red blood started flowing from her head. Barely aware of what I was doing, I ran over to her and started calling an ambulance. "I'm at the Kyushu public pool. My niece just slipped and fell on the wet concrete and there's blood gushing out of her head and—"

* * *

"Kunihiko Aikawa!" I flinched as Mr. Young stormed up to me. "I can't believe it! If my daughter—"

Thankfully his wife interceded before he could issue what I was sure was a few hundred death threats. "Come on, it was an accident. All we can do is pray now." Mrs. Young put a hand on her husband's arm. "It could have happened to anyone. Has Annalise woken up yet?" she asked, facing me.

"No. It's been a while and I'm worried. The nurses and doctors won't tell me anything because I'm not her guardian. They said you could go into her room, though." I bowed my head. "I'm so, so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Young. You trusted me with Annalise and now..."

Mr. Young deflated visibly. "...Fine. We'll discuss this later. You wait out here." He grabbed his wife's hand and walked up to the nurses station. I kept my head bent low as I watched them go. They talked to a nurse and then entered Annalise's room. _Please be okay, Annalise_, I prayed. _Please, just be all right._

They stayed in her room for hours before Mrs. Young came out and gestured for me to come in Annalise's room. I bit my lip and slowly stood before shuffling towards her. She placed a hand on my shoulder and guided me past Annalise's bed and into a chair near her head. Her husband stiffened when he saw me, but didn't say anything. I took a good glance at my niece, and was horrified by what I saw.

Part of her hair was shaved clear away where I could see a neat row of tiny, precise stitches. Goosebumps ran up my arms as I noticed breathing tubes and an IV sticking into her arm. _This is my fault_, I realized. _I did this to my own niece, to Annalise. How could you, Kunihiko?_

I only noticed I was crying when clear tears splashed against Annalise's warm hand. Looking up, I became aware of Mr. Young staring at me. He opened his mouth, failed to find words, and closed it. Sighing, he offered a mumble of some sort, but I thought I caught the words "it's okay, sorry Kunihiko." I didn't dare respond, but nodded my head faintly—I could have been simply nodding out of boredom, but I thought he got the message: "I'm sorry too."

I became less and less aware of time passing. Mrs. Young left and got us something from the hospital cafeteria for dinner, and called to let my parents know I was spending the night. It was about then that I realized that I must have taken her spot, and silently offered it to her. She smiled faintly, and sat down next to her daughter. I took a seat down at the foot of the bed and clasped my hands together in silent prayer.

After what seemed an eternity, I found myself jerking awake. Mrs. Young had left again, probably to get breakfast, and Mr. Young was fast asleep next to Annalise. I quietly stood to hold Annalise's hand before he woke up. Sitting down, I squeezed her hand, and sent a silent message with it. Wake up, please. We're so worried. Barely a few seconds later, I thought I felt a return squeeze. I glanced up, hope surely flickering in my eyes. Annalise's eyes fluttered a couple of times, and she turned her head towards me.

"Mr. Young!" I whispered frantically. "Mr. Young, I think she's waking up!" He grunted, yawned, and looked at her moved head. Eyes widening in surprise, he immediately called his wife. Not two minutes later, Mrs. Young was in the door, panting slightly. She stood behind her husband as she took in the changes. I felt another squeeze, this one much stronger than the first.

"Did you feel that?" I asked, and Annalise's father nodded. Her eyelids flickered a little, and slowly opened to reveal drowsy brown eyes.

"Uncle Kunihiko? Mom? Dad?" she asked slowly, quietly, and I'm not sure who was most elated. "Annalise!" We all exclaimed at once, clambering to get her attention.

It was then that I vowed never to let her get hurt on my watch again. _Ever._

* * *

Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! The alarm on my phone sounded and I slowly moved to turn it off, nearly falling off the couch to do so. I sat in quite reflection for a few moments, thinking over that dream. It had been a long time since that incident. Mr. Young had hardly let me near Annalise for the rest of the summer after her accident by the pool. Only Mrs. Young's intervention—and Annalise's insistence—had let me see her more than the few days she was in the hospital.

Shaking off the other negative connotations of hospitals and accidents, I slowly went into the bedroom to find Annalise fast asleep, breathing heavily. Her hair splayed all over my pillows, making her look more like a child than grown woman. She turned, let out a deep breath, and smiled in her sleep. It looked like she was having a nice dream. _Good, she's all right_. I got changed, shook her awake, and we headed out to open Long Island.

Business was the same as usual—absolutely none—and then Hazuki called. She wanted to go pray at Shintaro's shrine, and, well, it wasn't like I could say no. I explained vaguely to Annalise before dashing out of the bar to meet her. We chatted lightly on the train to his shrine, and when we got there I closed my eyes and, as usual, prayed for forgiveness. _I'm so sorry, Shintaro. Please, forgive me._

We were mostly silent on the way back, and separated at the station. I rode the rest of the trip thinking about the differences between Annalise's accident and Shintaro's. How I could have stopped them both from happening. I faked a smile as I went back to Long Island. Yamato and Annalise were chatting, which I found a little odd. They started acting weird when I appeared too, but I shrugged it off, feeling only a little confused. After all, I was hiding things too.

When I came back from the storage room, I found Hazuki standing in the bar and Yamato nowhere in sight. Annalise graciously made Hazuki comfortable, despite not knowing her at all, and probably quite curious as to how I knew her. She even offered to leave the bar to give us some time together, but I insisted she stay.

"Kunihiko, is she one of your staff members?" asked Hazuki, glancing curiously at Annalise.

"Yeah, she's staff." That didn't seem quite adequate. I remembered suddenly that I mentioned that Annalise was visiting. "But she's also my niece." There, that was better.

Hazuki smiled and turned to Annalise. "Oh, you're his niece?"

"Hi, I'm Annalise Young." The two started getting into their own conversation.

"Hi, Annalise. I'm Hazuki Matsuo. Kunihiko and I have been friends since college. It's so nice to meet you."

"I'm glad to meet you too." Annalise smiled gently. I thought she deserved to know what happened, so I filled her in on my afternoon, just a bit. Hazuki and I talked for a while, and I almost forgot Annalise was there. After Hazuki left, the usual gang filed in. I went to go make some hot food, and I listened half-heartedly to the conversation on the other side of the counter.

"You're too close!" Saeki shouted loudly. "Keep your faces and hands away from each other!" _Huh?_

Then Yuta chimed in. "You're not being fair, Yamato! You're trying to get close to Annalise every chance you get!" Oh. Were Yamato and Annalise...? I didn't think Annalise would see someone without telling me, but I guessed I didn't really know her that much anymore. She was a grown woman now, not that little kid excited for the pool.

Yamato interruppted my train of thought. "You guys are idiots..." Why was I so happy to hear that? I appeared at the bar to defend Annalise almost subconsiously. It was becoming more natural for me to call her a woman, my fake wife now. I let the gang poke fun at me for a while, laughing the whole time. It was getting too easy to fake this.

* * *

That night, as Annalise took her bath, I remembered my dream. I searched in some drawers and such, and finally found my old photo album. After Shintaro's death, I'd stopped adding photos, but I still kept it around. I flipped towards the middle, searching for pictures of Annalise and me by the pool. They should be right around here...Ah-ha! I found the photos and sat on the couch, looking at them. I smiled at Annalise's cheery grin as she posed for the camera.

A soft sound alerted me to Annalise's enterance. "What are you looking at?" she asked, padding over to where I sat.

"Photos of you and me when we went to the pool a long time ago," I answered candidly. Annalise sat down.

"You still have those!?" she asked. Well, it had been years and years since we went. She peered over my shoulder. "Oh my gosh! I was still in kindergarten!" Her voice warmed with memory.

A sense of nostalgia washed over me. "And I was in high school. I used to take you to the pool a lot during the summer."

"I totally remember! I was scared of the water, but you tricked me into the water and taught me how to swim."

She knew I tricked her? I played innocent. "What do you mean, tricked? You make me sound evil," I teased, and she got me right back.

"You're not?"

"Why you...! How dare you insult your swimming coach!" I jokingly wrapped my arm around her neck and pulled her close to me. I remembered my dream anew. "Remember how you ran along the pool and slipped?"

"Y-yeah..."

"You hit your head and got injured." Again I saw her scalp pierced with stitches and the blood flowing out. "I was so scared that time..." I trailed off in memory.

"I still have the scar."

No way. "Really? Lemme see." I combed my hands through her hair and found that place that had been shaved away for the stitches and grown a little shorter than the rest. I remembered that place all too well.

"Oh, I see it. It's faint, but it's still there." For the first few months, the scar had been prominently red and white. Glad that it was nearly gone, I stroked it a few times, as if to magically make it disappear.

"I'm just glad it's covered by my hair," said Annalise. That was new. The young Annalise had proudly displayed it to her friends once she was allowed out of bed.

"I guess... I'm glad it's covered by your hair, but it's horrible for a young woman to have a scar like this." I hated that I had caused this, had made this happen. Annalise must have gone through so much because of that scar.

"Yeah." Annalise sounded uncharacteristically worried. "What if no one wants to marry me because of this scar?" The knife of guilt stabbed at me again. I had her worrying about marriage thanks to my carelessness that one day.

"If no one will marry you, I'll marry you," I said, only half-joking. Annalise joked right back, but deep in my heart I felt a little less loneliness.

"I used to play with you a lot. We were so different in age, yet we got along so well."

"It's because your maturity level was similar to mine."

"Are you saying I was immature?"

Annalise let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm just saying you're young."

"Maybe you're just mature like me." And I really thought so. I might be young at heart, but she really was way mature for a woman in her twenties.

"I'm not that old yet!" And I was back at square one again. Why did everyone pick on my age, no matter theirs?

After that I had a work call and our joking atmosphere faded, yet somehow, I managed to sleep better that night than any in a long, long, time.


End file.
